Perishable Show - RM

This picture is from the last day of the shop so many items have gone.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot from the ground, because the plinths were fantastic.  The bases were comprised of all manner of fruit and vegetable slowly juicing themselves under the weight of the work. It forced the viewer to kneel down before the art or pick up individual pieces.  That was fine for the seed bomb necklaces and Art toilet paper, but posed more of an issue for the cast-candy, fancy-pants, car keys. 

The optimistic voodoo rings didn't fully eventuate, aka burn, because of a sensitive sprinkler system/fire alarms.  Tisk, Tisk, I will have to be a bit more health and safety conscious next year.

Happy Holidays!

paint by numbers style

Walking the Grey Area to Apparatus and Leonor Hipolito

Leonor Hipolito @Objectspace

I love synchronicity, who doesn't?

1.  The window show entitled Apparatus @ Objectspace came highly recommended by a friend.  So I went to see it.  It is a work that just sings.  The pieces are beautifully carved from natural, unstained wood.  The finish is smooth giving the objects a sense of light and weightlessness.  The forms are familiar but not necessarily obvious.  As a group, the work has a beautifully, lyrical quality.  I liked it.  The maker is jeweller, Leonor Hipolito from Portugal.

The description accompanying the work quotes Hipolito pertinent environmental concerns in saying, "Apparatus weaves a thread between the thought and the action.  Like a conscious gesture it leads to reflect upon a series of pertinent questions relating to global environmental relation."

2.  I have been reading walking the grey area blog that was created as a project culminating in an exhibition at the Grey Area Symposium in April 2010.  The concept is that a Latin American and European jeweller will be paired and tasked with investigating jewellery, global mobility and identity.  All curators and participants are migrants.   And guess who is participating?  Leonor Hipolito! 

The blog is a little overwhelming so I am taking it one pair at a time.  Hipolito originally paired with Miguel Luciano, ends up having a fabulous volley with Dani Soter.  And there are side conversations going on all over the show!

All in all, I have found her posts very interesting.  The project is a fascinating way to learn more about jewellers and their practice and modes of operation in a collaborative sense.  I love the fact that she would have been writing these posts as she was preparing and sending the above mentioned show, how fun!  Here are some of my favourite snippets from Hipolito.

Leonor Hipolito - December 11th

States of Mind

Illustration, Leonor Hipolito, 2009

Leonor Hipolito - November  24th

... Here I am quoting an extract of Keru Tuberg text for 'Chroma/Monochroma'

Nomad jewellery

Contemporary jewellery carries the philosophy of traveling in itself.  The one who makes jewellery is traveling, the one who wears it is traveling, and the one who notices it is traveling.  Paths are different and travelers are different, but at same point they all have recognised their resting place or their home in jewellery.  They have discovered something that accords with their nature.

Leonor Hipolito - September 29th

... It took me years of experiments to realise my realation with jewelry is that of mental correlation rather than material.  Materiality is indeed a great part of the process but not the leitmov.  I am very focused on stretching my thoughts about specific concerns.  I am keen to scrutinise some facets of the human psychology and defy the borders of perception. 
Jewelry is controversial and therefore an interesting open subject.

Dear Jewellery Gods:

I would like to know how my two most anticipated jewellery events of 2010 have ended up on completely separate sides of the globe within 12 hours of each other?  re-Source, Grey Area, re-Source, Grey Area.   Is it physically possible to actually be at both?
So, dear jewellery Gods, I will be expecting the help of both Superman and King Midas to get from Perth to Mexico city on April 12, 2010. 

(Actually, I am easy and will settle for either.)

- your unamused jeweller
K

BEST BEFORE: perishable artworks @ RM

If you are in Auckland this weekend come along to the opening/project launch at RM to the Perishable shop.  I have two little projects, Optimistic Voodoo: Rack-o Patriot Act Rings  (pictured above) and a wee collaborative piece via PaperWasp Collective which is a poem/ring, to read the poem you have to destroy the ring.  Fingers crossed that these don't trip the fire alarm/sprinkler system.

BEST BEFORE: perishable artworks (the annual RM shop) and RM Archive launch

3pm Saturday 19 December 2009

room, ground floor, 295 K Road, Newton, Auckland

Here is what RM has to say about the event:
"Since 2003, RM has ended the year by bringing together a shop full of art multiples, miniatures, catalogues, handicrafts, food and beverages.  This year they thought they would change the format slightly - focusing on perishable art: objects with a shelf-life, art multiples with use-by dates, self-destructing sculptures, a slowly disappearing inventory of stock."
And all proceeds go back to the artists.
At the same time, RM will be launching an archive of the last 12 years of activity.  An exciting move for a space that has provided a consistent experimental outlet for Auckland art.

Jewellery on the Radio

Radio NZ interviewed Lisa Walker on the Arts on Sunday this past weekend.  Listen to the interview here:

picture via the New Dowse: Lisa Walker: brooch, 2007

Having listened to this a week ago, I am still loving the line, "Everything is food for jewellery"

feast-ive

~treats and surprises for feast~

Opening on Sunday 20th December between 3 – 6pm, ‘FEAST’,

a special satellite show hosted by Studio 20/17 and curated by Zoe Brand, on display in THE DEPOT GALLERY, as well as the completion of the second year at Studio 20/17.

Studio 20/17 has extended opening hours in the lead up to Christmas and both galleries will be open SUNDAY 20th through to Christmas Eve on THURSDAY 24th December from 11am to 6pm.

On failure and the love of liminal things

I cannot stop reading this lovely passage written by Ann Ellegood and continually interchanging the words art - sculpture - jewellery....

The artists' willingness to allow their work to suggest both a coming together and a falling apart is one of the most important, and distinctive, aspects of the work, resulting in an open quality that refuses to spell out or tie down its meaning. A visible awkwardness on indeterminateness may take on structural manifestations in terms of delicasy, precariousness, and the periodic use of inherently unstable materials, but the failure I am most interesting in here is the one that remains a possibility, as these artists simultaneously embrace and challenge the legacy of what sculpture can and should be. To put something out into the world whose meanings is opaque, value undetermined, and historically position ambiguous is, to put it mildly, risky (especially when the contemporary art world, and particularly the art market, increasingly demands facile interpretive meaning, an easily understood accompanying narrative, and legible and digestible formal qualities). Yet the possibility of failure here is not intended to be heroic. These are the small, daily failures that accompany an ongoing commitment to experimentation and refusal to become complacent.  And the result, it turns out, are not failures at all. These artists genuinely push against the parameters of the traditions of sculpture, taking an active role in parsing through its inherited languages while proposing wholly new languages as yet undefined. Samuel Beckett described this type of commitment to process and change beautifully, ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.’* Despite the fact that the works contain elements that carry associations the views can sin their interpretive teeth into, these sculptures might be best characterized as liminal – somewhere between an object and idea, between matter and consciousness – and this is a radical place to be.


* Samual Beckett. Worstward Ho in Nohow On: Company, Ill Seeen Ill Said, Worstward Ho: Three Novels (New York: Grove Press, 1996; originally published 1984), 87.

_________________________________________

Ann Ellegood. The uncertaintiy of objects and ideas: Recent Scultpure. (Washington DC, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2006) 15.

Publication worthy of its objectness

                     

The object and jewellery graduates from Unitec created a lovely little end of year publication called 3D Tales (full disclosure, I am part of that group).  It is a delightful object to behold, if I do say so myself.  We were all so pleased with the photographs taken by Jessica Goodall and the excellent design by Mark Lovatt.  There is an introduction by Pauline Bern and Ilse-Marie Erl, critical essay by Matt Blumeley of Objectspace, and end note by Kim Meek.

feast

"celebrating the predetermined and gloriously spontaneous moments" of the season,

this evening Raewyn Walsh, Lynsay Raine, Sharon Fitness, Anne Baynham

and I are shipping off our little treats to Syndey for Feast.

The brain child of Zoe Brand, as a special satellite Christmas exhibition of Studio 20/17, the show promises to be exciting. 

Syndey:  depot gallery 1, 20 - 24 December

2D art + community = papergirl

Thank you Raewyn Walsh for emailing me this Papergirl Portland video and making my day.
The projects work like this:  2D art is donated by local artists and exhibited.  Then they are rolled up and passed out to random people on the street "paperboy" style.  What a glorious idea!

The Papergirl - Berlin site is well worth a visit

                                          photo care of Papergirl-berlin

I feel a bike ride coming on...

collaborative projects to drool over part 2: SKATE

The first event for CJP (Community Jewellery Projects) was recently held in Nelson.  SKATE was an open access project organised to explore and extend jewellery practice within the Nelson community. The purpose is to build a diverse and vibrant jewellery community and to offer a platform for challenging and provocative events, exhibitions and projects. It is anticipated that CJP events will be held at least three times a year.

via kit and caboodle

I cannot wait to hear how it went.

Tis the season

For group shows and grad shows in Auckland

UNITEC GRAD SHOW
25 November, Opening party from 5.00pm



26 - 27 November, 10am - 6pm

28 November, 10am - 4pm


Where

Building 1, Entry 1, Carrington Rd, Mt Albert

Opening party - 25 November, 5.30pm to late

Drinks & refreshments available from 5.30pm



Fingers Annual Group Show:  November 16th - 28th 2009



Masterworks Treasure Trove :Group Jewellery Show  3 Dec 2009

Elam Grad Show 21-22 November

jewellery on the brink of a realtionship

My work focuses on jewellery that explores alternative forms of exchange between maker and wearer.  This project, ‘jewellery on the brink of a relationship’, functions as homage.  Each fortnight for a year, one of twenty-six unique pieces will land on the doorstep of a different artist or thinker who has provided me with inspiration.
 
A thank you note implies a relationship.  In my circumstance the relationship up to this point has often been one sided.  This project attempts to scramble the current paradigm where one person makes and the other observes.  In this case, both parties function as giver and receiver and as maker and viewer.   It is an experiment in interchange and initiating relationships.

I will document the progress here  http://jewelleryonthebrink.blogspot.com/

Hurray its done.

oh that is where the wild things are...

What a photo, jon pack!

collaborative projects to drool over part 1: coffee and jewels

Ana Cardim is a jeweller having coffee with strangers.
15 to be precise.
It looks like she documents the meeting and makes a jewel in response.
Yeah!

via broesvitrine

The States

I had the pleasure of being at the performance of The States at the Judith Wright Center in Brisbane this past October. The work was a multimedia collaboration between Erik Griswold (composer),Sarah Pierre (visual artist), and Craig Foltz(writer). Two of the three are ex-pat Americans living in Australia and New Zealand. The show was surreal and experimental with periods that were very intimate and accessible, a real treat.

Visually piquing the curiosity, red, blue and white tissue paper creations streamed through the room, enormous odd ribbons of distinction were clustered on stands in the center, white balloons bounced on the floor and from the ceiling hung a banner with peeling letters.  Projected images filled the window of the space with a banner of text running along the bottom, legible only from the outside.  The looping images were of cornbread, fighter jets, a moose lamp, an LA roof top pool, colored flags against a blue sky and seemed set the stage for a performance focused on the act of observing or reminiscing rather than judging.

The performers were setup in the middle of the room with the audience surrounding them and two large windows open to the crowded street.  Many curious passers-by stopped in or just stood outside to peer in for a while.  As you entered the space, Pierre handed out programs, a card and a pencil.  Each card contained a quote and color coded instructions, such as pass this card to the person on your left, hang it to the wall or rate this quote. Throughout the performance Pierre sat stitching garland off to the corner, a subtle affect reminiscent of someone sitting on the porch, in a swing and listening to the radio.  The audience seemed to follow her lead and relax into the experience.

The show itself was primarily musical, somewhat abstract and meditative, but with inviting hooks that offered a level of accessibility that many experimental music gigs lack.  Griswold was the mastermind behind the music and to be congratulated for such an interesting mixture of sound.  He used arrangements of Amazing Graze and Come Sunday, to give the audience a locating point, but everything was magically skewed. The musicians included two keyboards, the Erhu, the air pump and two vocalists with a myriad of other bells and objects being used throughout.  For a fantastic and comprehensive overview of the music please see this review, http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/article/clocked-out-the-states





Foltz's text appeared in spoke in fragments, looping and sprinkled thoughts through the piece.  "In this part an ascending axis". His words provided momentary snippets of thoughts and glimpses, like memories flashing by.  Foltz lead the audience through the Dada-esque activities.  Pending the color on which his spinning wheel landed, the audience read poetry, tore up their cards, or affixed their own writing to the walls.  Another successful cross over between the performer and viewer was the final piece, The Party's Over, during which Pierre deconstructed the installation and gathered all of the streamers,and ribbons together into a heap in the middle of the room.  I found this show a lovely dream scape of sounds, color and words; a melting pot that decided not to melt too much.

tonight's the night.

1 baby, 2 life reorganisations, 3 weddings, 9+ overseas trips, 12 brooches, and 24 new friends; Broach of the Month Club 2009.

the end

jewellery on the brink of a.....

relationship.

These photos were taken by Jessica Hill.

I never get tired of Bruce Mau

quote and illustration by Bruce Mau



Rereading An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth and think it needs to be a daily routine. I am really digging #21 today, but enjoying its neighbors as well. Give yourself a present and go read the whole thing here.

20. Be careful to take risks.
Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.

21. Repeat yourself.
If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again.


22. Make your own tools.
Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.

23. Stand on someone’s shoulders.
You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.

About, above

Solar-powered cardboard planetarium - Hyde Park, Sydney, February '08
Cardboard, pinholes, sunlight, rivets, string. 90cm x 80cm x 90cm. Edition 1/6

© Kirsten Bradley 2008


The Birds Path (after Herschel) - detail of installation
Cardboard, pinholes, sunlight, rear-projection screen, blacked-out room.
© Kirsten Bradley 2008

Solar-powered cardboard planetarium - Belmore Park, Sydney, February '08

Cardboard, pinholes, sunlight, rivets, string. 230cm x 200cm 230cm. Edition 1/6

© Kirsten Bradley 2008



Kirsten Bradley's work About, above, stands up where I feel that many participatory projects fall short.

• Emotionally engaging as a viewer or particpant, check.
• Aesthetic compelling as a stand alone object, check.
• Theoretical backbone, check.

Here is what she has to say about the work:

A project in two parts, About, above invites the viewer into a world of lo-fi nature through participatory sculpture and installation. The first aspect of the project are solar-powered cardboard planetaria, which are designed to be installed in parks and other public spaces within a city. The second aspect of the project is an installation in the form of a room or chamber containing a camera obscura starmap, which is 'powered' by exterior sunlight, and allows the viewer to experience both a glowing starchart and a mosaic version of the world outside the chamber, simultaneously.
Read more about her project here Kirsten Bradley

Go West

PHOTOGRAPH: “LISA DE COHEN WITH ADAPTIVE”(1983)/ARCHIV FRANZ WEST via the new yorker

In recent weeks I have discovered some of the most fantastic interactive sculpture.

The first is Franz West's adaptives. This photo breaks my heart, it is so beautiful. I don't think that any words are actually necessary.

But thanks to the Gagosian 2008 catalogue which provides a fabulous background for these adaptives:

In the early 1970s Franz West began making small-scale assemblages incorporating found materials such as cardboard, bandages, and wire, which he then covered with a coat of plaster and white paint. He called these sculptures Paßstück. West maintained that the viewer must engage with, handle, the sculptures in order to fully experience their "ergonomic" nature. Subsequently Paßstück has been translated as "adaptive" but this does not fully capture its original source as a technical term meaning "parts that fit into each other." These early sculptures function as prosthetics for an intimate version of the extreme Actionist spectacles of the mid-seventies in Vienna.

Zdenek Felix said: "West's adaptives are situated somewhere between the poles of body and psyche. Through use by the public, they could definitely become objects for behavioral research. This would comply with the intentions of the artist who is much more interested in the handling of his 'objects' than their formal completion." via the gagosian

so good.

be happy and eat more cake!

I always feel like I should be making more wedding presents for my dear marrying-up friends. But never quite cracked the idea of "couple jewellery". Ah, once again, Arthur Hash and his lady Liz to the rescue. They have nailed the perfect piece. You can read the whole story here on art escape plan.

What better message to send, than "eat more cake!"



Raewyn Walsh, the challenge is ours if you accept it.

wooden

I think that this is a really nice show that stand for something even more exciting. There is a little gang called wood club that meets to talk about furniture once a week. Graffiti furnishings appear around the place. They are creating a general buzz and I think it's great.

Well done and thanks for including my rings in this show.

September 8th is a hot date

Sharon Fitness,
opening 6pm September 8,
Inform Gallery, CHC

And on the same day its got legs begins, the RMIT Gold and Silversmithing Annual Postgraduate and Alumni Award Exhibition 2009. The opening is on the 9th, and one Ms Jacqui Chan is in that show.
via Melbourne Jewller

How great would it be to fly around to all of these openings? I need that job.

maquette

Inspiration happens before we notice it. Have you ever stood before a finished work of art and found yourself less interested in the polished artifact in front of you than the various steps in the process required to get there? How many iterations are born and discarded before this final completed piece is ready to be displayed? Some would say, the discarded bones of a fish or the stock for a bouillabaisse, what’s the difference?

Typically, at one end of the creative process there is a disconnected pile of widgets while at the other end there is a shimmering artifact basking in the muted glow of halogen lights. But what we are interested in is the steps in between. The Maquettes project suspends the end to end process so that the rough sketches and models become the de facto finished product.

Here’s another way of looking at things: One sketch says hello to another sketch and just like that a rough draft is born. It’s in this place where we’ve decided to pause for a moment. We don’t stop here because we have some innate desire to illustrate the various steps in the art-making process; rather we want to ascribe a value to inspiration and spontaneity. That is to say, freshness and energy rather than polish and luster. Isotopes and polymers rather than mass-produced objects. Spindle and bobbin rather than glass display cases. Windowsills rather than free trade economic zones.

We’ve decided to linger in between these spaces, in the hopes of capturing the moment before the moment that art “happens”. Won’t you step in and join us?


- Craig Foltz

Tonic Collective - Depot Artspace Show

Introducing the Tonic Collective .

Tonic describe themselves as "emerging contemporary jewellery and object artists whose diverse practices are continually pushing boundaries." All students from MSVA, they are Cath Dearsley, Nadene Carr, Paula Thornburrow, and Sarah Walker-Holt.

Tonic's inaugural exhibition is running at the Small Dog Gallery in the Depot Artspace from August 22nd – September 3rd. This is a lovely show in a great space. Now that the group has this accomplishment under their belts I hope that they go onto push more of those boundaries.

Imagine yourself in a plane of flaxy grass swimming...

New writing by Craig Foltz here.

by three methods we may learn wisdom.
first, by reflection, which is the noblest;
second, by imitation, which is the easiest;
and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.
- Confucius

Wow, Mr Douglas

"Hallelujah! The might and the power of the people is beginning to show." Emory Douglas
See his work here.

I had the privilege to see the Emory Douglas talk last night. If you haven't seen the exhibition at Gus Fisher it is a must see.
21 August 2009 to 3 October 2009

you can take the girl out of the rust belt, but....

ball chain series 09